Robotic surgical system and related methods

Abstract

Examples described herein are relevant to robotic surgical systems, such as those used in spine surgery. Examples described herein include: a distal section of a robot arm, pods having fiducials, face switching angles, fiducial hollows, drape anchoring and sensing, selective face switching with active fiducials, pedal-less workflow, user interface control, hand guiding, robot egress, robot tool center point adjustment, collision reaction, dynamic screw placement ordering, flexible robot cart placement, depth gauges, implant checking, implant-to-instrument-checking, robot bed-side docking, workflow based cart immobilization, patient gross movement monitoring, selective brake control, auto vertical adjustment, gesture-based planning, automatic sleeve retention and retraction, among others.

1 . A system comprising:
 a robot arm having a tracking section;   a first fiducial array at the tracking section having first fiducials; and   a second fiducial array at the tracking section having second fiducials.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the tracking section has a frustoconical shape with a smaller diameter end of the frustconical shape being distal to a larger diameter end of the frustconical shape. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the first and second fiducials are infrared emitters. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein bounding boxes of the first and second fiducial arrays overlap. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 ,
 wherein the tracking section includes a first receptacle; and   a first pod having a first housing sized to fit within the first receptacle,   wherein the first pod has the first fiducial array.   
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 ,
 wherein the first housing contains a circuit board,   wherein the first fiducials are electrically coupled to the circuit board.   
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the first fiducials are mounted to the circuit board. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the circuit board is electrically coupled to a connector configured to electrically connect the circuit board with an electronic component of the robot arm. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the first pod includes at least one guide pin configured to facilitate placement of the first pod within the first receptacle. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first fiducials is disposed within a hollow. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the hollow has a shape of a truncated cone. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the hollow defines an upper boundary and a lower boundary between which one or more walls extend, wherein at least one of the first fiducials is disposed at the lower boundary. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 ,
 wherein the first fiducials are aimed at a first focal point; and   wherein the second fiducials are aimed at a second focal point different from the first focal point.   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 1 ,
 wherein each of the first and second fiducials is associated with a respective fiducial normal extending therefrom; and   wherein the fiducial normals of the first fiducials converge toward first focal point; and   wherein the fiducial normals of the second fiducials converge toward a second focal point.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 ,
 wherein at least one of the first fiducials is disposed within a respective hollow configured such that the respective fiducial normal of the at least one first fiducial is aimed at the first focal point.   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the robot arm further has at least one capture area configured to resist distal movement of an anchor of a drape covering the robot arm. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the capture area defines a lead-in groove and a pocket. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 16 , further comprising a sensor configured to detect the presence or absence of an anchor within the capture area. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the sensor is an optical sensor. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 an activation sensor; and   a controller configured to selectively activate the first fiducial array and the second fiducial array based on output of the activation sensor and a schedule.